Paul Cutler wrote:
> With all this talk of firewall distro's, what exactly are the
> disadvantages to running running your firewall on the same server as
> your webserver / ftp server / ssh server?

The more services you put on a box and the more open ports you have, the 
greater your risk of getting hacked.  Also, if you put all your eggs in
one basket, you have more to loose in the event of a drive failure,
breakin, whatever.  

> I run one box in basement that does all of the above, and I use
> shorewall for setting up iptables.  It's also the samba / fileserver for
> my family, hosting my music and pictures, and some gallery sites for my
> kids.  All on my standard Roadrunner account.

If you keep everything patched and updated, you *should* be fine.  Make
frequent backups though and have a plan on how you would restore should
you lose a hard drive or another major component fails.  Since you're 
not running any mission critical services (DNS, mail, web) you'll
probably survive if your box was down for a period of time.  In the end
it comes down to how much can you afford to loose?  The decision is
yours.
-- 
scot

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